"Damn it... Why? How did it come to this...!"
At one edge of the battlefield, a figure dragged his wounded body along, struggling to pull back from the fight.
This was the man who had once vied for the title of the kingdom's most powerful magician—Marquis Eiger, the one who held the queen dowager's faction together.
The fierce battle had left Marquis Eiger gravely wounded.
He had no mana left to spare for healing.
He had managed to stop the bleeding, but dragging his feet forward was the best he could manage.
"I did everything Her Majesty the Queen Dowager told me to do... So why did I fail? Why am I the one who's been defeated...!"
The hypnosis he had been placed under by the empire's magician had already worn off.
Now that his mind was clear again, all that surfaced was pure confusion.
Defeat was supposed to be impossible.
Everything the queen dowager said was correct.
He had spent his whole life obeying her righteous words, so why had he failed? Why had he ended up so miserable?
"Guh...!"
Why... was he on the ground?
Why was he crawling like a beaten dog?
Wasn't it supposed to be the fools who disobeyed the queen dowager's orders who should have ended up like this?
"Why... How could this..."
"Disgraceful... Don't go spouting such pathetic drivel now."
"...!"
He flinched, his shoulders trembling.
He turned toward the voice, and there stood a boy who didn't look half the age of Marquis Eiger.
"Why? That's obvious. We were stronger, and you were weak. What else is a battle's outcome supposed to be decided by?"
"You... you are..."
"Wilhelm Lubeth. I suppose you could call me a baron."
A baron. A minor noble.
He'd never heard the name Lubeth before.
Probably just one of the countless minor nobles out in the countryside.
"...Honestly, this outcome is a little unsatisfying."
Lubeth muttered to himself as he gazed down at the fallen Marquis Eiger.
"The big guy got to fight Rodele, who's their supreme commander, and my opponent turns out to be some old coot who couldn't even die properly... First the plains, and now here too — I always end up as the backup."
Lubeth turned his face in the direction of the royal army's main camp.
That was where cheers suddenly erupted from.
Had some notable general been killed, perhaps?
"Aw man... He won after all. A result so predictable it's boring."
Lubeth pouted his lips in dissatisfaction.
Even with Marquis Eiger — the rebel army's de facto leader — lying right before him, his attitude was utterly indifferent.
As if the dying insect before him wasn't worth a single thought.
"...!"
(...You think you can look down on me?!)
Marquis Eiger's brain was boiling.
He was being looked down on. Despised... he, a duke.
Chosen as adjutant by the Queen Dowager herself, appointed leader of a faction... and now he was being made a fool of by nothing more than a baron's child.
(...You brat... did you think I can no longer fight...?!)
It was true that Marquis Eiger had suffered wounds severe enough to put him near death.
But... if he used the mana he'd been spending on staunching his blood loss, he could still manage one more magic cast.
(Since I can't escape anyway... then I'll take this brat with me! This promising young whelp will die alongside me!)
To be looked down upon by a child who had never even met the great Queen Dowager—unforgivable.
Marquis Eiger gathered every last drop of mana remaining in his body... and cast the final magic of his life.
"[Wind...]
But he couldn't finish the incantation.
Because... in the very next instant, Marquis Eiger was flying through the air.
(Wha...?)
He was flying like a bird.
Over the earth. Over the battlefield. Over that impudent young whelp. And... over his own body.
(My... head... is gone...?)
When he looked down at his severed body, it had no head.
And the youth he had been about to slice apart with his final spell was swinging his sword clean through.
Just moments ago, the boy had been chatting away casually without even so much as a hand on his blade....
"Oh, right... I forgot to mention."
Lubeth spoke. As though it were all of little consequence.
"I owe you my thanks for the kill. He's not on the same level as that one... but I'll gladly settle for second place."
What did he mean by that... The question had barely surfaced when Marquis Eiger crashed into the ground.
His vision was swallowed by pitch-black darkness... and the consciousness of the cunning old minister who had terrorized the kingdom vanished into an eternal darkness from which there was no return.